Cost of rolling blackouts
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Well, we avoided rolling blackouts here in California yesterday, but we still had some record power outages because of the heat. And as Sarah Gardner reports, that’s bad for business.
SARAH GARDNER: During the California energy crisis of 2000-2001, rolling black-outs periodically shut down everything from assembly lines to computer servers.
No one has exact numbers but according to one study, just two days of blackouts alone cost California business $1.7 billion in lost productivity.
Gino DiCaro is at the California Manufacturers and Technology Associationa€¦
GINO DICARO:“One manufacturer produced paperboard and cardboard boxes. They have pipes that actually have glue flow through them and anytime they go through rolling blackouts that are unpredictable, well, that glue freezes up and its takes two days to actually clean out those pipes.”
Temperatures in the Golden State are expected to ease somewhat by mid-week, but officials warn the summer’s not even half over.
I’m Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
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